Yes, you can buy a little inspiration

When I was in high school I hung out with the art and music weirdos (surprise, surprise). My best friend dubbed us his "Muffins". Oh yes, we were even assigned a different muffin flavor in accordance to what he thought matched our personalities. (It's stuck to this day.) When we weren't at school or working at our mall jobs, we spent our free time playing. We'd drive out to the middle of nowhere to listen to a massive quantity of peepers chirping and watch the fireflies. We'd fly kites and swing in playgrounds. We'd hit 7-11 for Slurpees and candy cigarettes. If for some reason, we had to stay in, we'd paint silly pictures together or make elaborate mix tapes for our other friends. These tapes included comedy sketches performed by us and were usually elaborately packaged. We'd dance in the living room while one of my friends played the piano.

These days we've all grown up, have degrees and "real jobs", moved away, some of us have gotten married, and one of us just had a baby (our first mini-muffin! Congratulations, Blueberry!). The point being that the playing has stopped. We all take our art pretty seriously these days. Every painting is geared with thoughts towards the portfolio, every song could be the next piece on an album or musical try-out. It's too bad, because even as adults I think sometimes we still need to play. Especially when you are in an artistic slump.

A few years ago, my job was right off an adorable New England Main Street. There were all kinds of cute little shops that I'd stroll into on my lunch break. On a trip to my favorite one, I stumbled on a book by Keri Smith called "Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life." I was psyched. First of all, Keri Smith (like me) is an illustrator. Second, look how completely adorable her work is:

The book was a breath of fresh air. It felt like a throwback to my high school days of playful creativity. It's full of little games and ideas to get you to relax, create, and most of all have fun while doing it. Of course I bought it immediately:

There are little activities you can tear and cut directly out of the book. There are stickers in the middle and tear-out postcards in the back. She'd officially won me over. One of her ideas that I did was "Permission Cards". She included a perforated page with different ideas on them. You tear them out, put them in a jar or bowl (my jar of choice was an old Lindt chocolate jar with a big lime green ribbon in it). You say to yourself "I give myself permission to..." reach in, and pull out a little card. They say things like "dance", "create", "dream" etc.

It's a little silly, but that's totally the point. I've got a few days left on my va-k. I think that once my studio is clean, I'm going to kick back, re-read this book, and rediscover my love for creative play once again.
What do you guys do to get the creative juices flowing?